OOOh, It's actually been a while since I did a food post. With all this cold weather, here are some tips and tricks to make magical soup.
It is ridiculously cold here in Cape Town so I have been making a lot of soup lately. It is economical, extremely healthy and easy to make!
You need a giant stock pot for this.
So, to start, when we do roasts, etc, I collect the leftover liquid or even boil the bones to get homemade stock and then freeze it. We also keep leftover roast veggies and these are normally done in the same pan as my flipping easy casserole, and they're bursting with flavor. Having these on hand makes a huge difference between just soup and GLORIOUS soup.
Whatever you do, start the process by dicing and sauteeing at least four onions with garlic and herbs. Then, depending on that you have, you can throw in whatever frozen veggies you feel like, chopped and diced of course. With a pot this size, I usually use about 2kg.
Then, you get to decide if you are going to add chicken (which I roast and then debone), or soup bones (which are ridiculously cheap at the local supermarket or even both!
There are no rules when it comes to soup, and that makes it kind of exciting! Every pot of soup I make is delicious and hearty. Sometimes I even add some soaked beans for extra protein, or for chicken soup, you can add two-minute noodles right at the end.
I also add in two sachets of instant soup mix, which thickens things up nicely.
I then add about a litre and a half of boiling water at let everything simmer on a low heat for at least four hours. This gives everything a chance to cook and for the flavors to blend. It's even better the next day!
My little secrets are:
- I hide a big blob of cheese under everyone's soup, like at the bottom of the bowl! It melts by the time they get there and come on, who doesn't like melted cheese!
- Choose your bread wisely. Our local supermarket has started making something called butter bread, and we are so hooked! But you can use anything you fancy, from ciabatta to sourdough. Choose something you really enjoy.
You can also bake your own bread! I do have a recipe here, and it's a meal on it's own
